http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/11311 2025-12-30T18:51:06Z 2025-12-30T18:51:06Z Perera, K.D.I.M. Fazana, S.F. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/11395 2022-06-07T07:12:24Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

Awareness of Sustainability and its Impact on Gaining Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Sri Lankan Food Industry Perera, K.D.I.M.; Fazana, S.F. Awareness of sustainability and compliance with the sustainability requirements in volatile business environments are important with the increasing concern of customers and legislations when considered about the current business arena. Being one of the most competitive yet the most pollutant contributing industries in Sri Lanka, gaining a sustainable competitive advantage with an accountable awareness of sustainability in the food industry remains questionable. This study aims to identify the impact of awareness of economic, environmental, and social sustainability on gaining sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. The study focuses on the top management of hotels, restaurants and fast - food chains in Western Province. The research sample includes 150 respondents which were extracted through stratified and convenience sampling techniques while mixed - method technique was adopted for data analysis. The first study follows the quantitative method in which data were collected by using a self-administered questionnaire, while qualitative data were collected via interviewing participants in the second study to validate the findings of the first study. The results revealed that awareness of environmental, economic and social sustainability create a significant impact in gaining sustainable competitive advantage. Particularly awareness of social sustainability highly impacts on gaining competitive advantage compared to the other two variables (R2 = 0.85). These findings were validated via qualitative analysis and findings revealed that having awareness about the three pillars of sustainability will have a significant impact on gaining sustainable competitive advantage. The researcher was able to contribute to the existing literature of relevant constructs and the study contributes as a strategic tool for policy makers in the sustainable strategy formulation process in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage by adopting the latest market trends within the industry. This exposed to number of future research areas on different influential factors relevant to gaining sustainable competitive advantage in addition to the elements discussed within the study.

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z Danushka, S.A.N. Weerasinghe, T.A. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/11394 2022-06-07T06:59:44Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

A Critical Review on Terminology and Definitions of Blended Learning Danushka, S.A.N.; Weerasinghe, T.A. Blended learning seems an effective solution to knowledge dissemination among the knowledge community in the modern educational context. As the concept of ‘blended learning’ is interpreted differently by individuals, it makes a conceptual and definitional ambiguity among the practitioners over the years. This review tries to establish an insight into terminological and conceptual ambiguity over the definition of blended learning, and it would support scholars to be consistent in defining blended learning in future studies. The review was conducted with 74 research papers published in international peer-reviewed journals accessed via Google Scholar and Scinapse. The findings were thematically analysed in-depth and identified four dimensions of blended learning: Technology, Pedagogy (Educational), Cultural and Social, and Economical. The further analysis of review results could lead into formulating an amenable definition on blended learning - a combination on face-to-face and online instruction which ensure greater flexibility in students’ learning and congruity of course delivery - which is termed as ‘popular sense’ in this paper. Further, it is noted that blended-learning definition often tends to get influenced by contextual and personal experiences of the educationalists.

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z Wanigasekara, W.A.D.K.J. Deshika, N.P.T. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/11393 2022-06-07T06:39:47Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

Human Capital Efficiency and Employee Productivity: A Comparative Analysis of the Manufacturing Sector vs. Service Sector Public Listed Companies in Sri Lanka Wanigasekara, W.A.D.K.J.; Deshika, N.P.T. Human capital is one of the most vital organizational knowledge assets, which is a part of organizational Intellectual Capital. Therefore, it contributes to organizational competitive advantage through enhancing employee productivity. Hence, the objective of this study was to find out the relationship between Human Capital Efficiency (HCE) and Employee Productivity (EP) in manufacturing sector companies and service sector companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange as a comparative study. Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) is a method used to measure the value creation efficiency of a company and HCE is one component of VAIC, which has a substantial impact on EP. Therefore, it is vital for finding out the relationship between HCE and EP in the practical scenario. But, there is a dearth of studies related to the relationship between HCE and EP in Sri Lanka. This study is carried out as a solution for bridging this empirical and contextual gap. Data were collected from 25 manufacturing companies and 25 service sector companies (Hotel and travel sector) during the period from 2015 to 2019. The data were analyzed using the Pearson Correlation and regression. The results of the data analysis indicated that the relationship between HCE and EP is moderate and significant in service sector companies, while an insignificant weak relationship was found in manufacturing sector companies. Further, a significant impact of HCE on EP was found in the service sector, but that impact was not significant in the manufacturing sector. It can be concluded that service sector companies pay more attention to enhance the HCE since the knowledge and skill embedded in employees are more valuable in providing services to their customers than manufacturing sector companies. Ultimately, the results show that good HCE can indeed improve EP, which has significant meanings for investors, company management, decision-makers, and industry regulators.

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z Kavinda, D. D. C. Anuradha, P. A. N. S. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/11392 2022-06-07T06:37:15Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

Directors’ Security Purchases on Security Performance: Evidence from Colombo Stock Exchange Kavinda, D. D. C.; Anuradha, P. A. N. S. Consequently, compensation arrangements may include equity options to balance shareholders' preferences with directors and managers. Still, this raises additional issues when a director wants to trade their company securities since they have access to more significant information about the company. As a result, this study examines how directors’ security purchase transactions would result in security performance in Sri Lanka. Moreover, this study examines how security purchase transactions based on directors’ gender, would result in security performance. This is due to the in risk attitudes and access to information based on the director’s gender are different. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2019, which includes 141 directors' security purchases reported in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The research issues are investigated using the event study methodology. Overall, the results show that significant negative cumulative average abnormal returns are followed by directors' security purchase transactions after three days. Hence, it shows that the directors' security purchase transactions are rapidly reflected in security prices on the event date and up to the three days from the event date, and after that inefficiency levels prevail in the market. In terms of gender-wise, male directors' security purchase transactions result in to have significant negative cumulative average abnormal returns after ten days, whereas the absence of significant cumulative average abnormal returns is found for female directors’ security purchase transactions. It is observed that the market perceives the category of gender is informative when making trades after a few days of the transactions. Finally, when it comes to the speed of incorporating directors' security purchases information into security prices, both male and female directors' security purchase transactions are rapidly reflected in security prices. However, inefficiency levels prevailed in the market for male directors’ security purchase transactions after ten days. This study concluded that directors’ security purchase transactions do not yield particularly positive price impact, as well as the CSE is informationally efficient. The results of the study are also important for policymakers to encourage companies to further comply with expanding the set of information that is publicly available about directors’ security purchases. Besides, reporting timelines would limit directors' ability to benefit from their information advantage.

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